Rooting guide for Tennessee Baseball to host an NCAA Regional

The 56-game regular season and 30-game conference slate is over. Next up is the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Ala. this week for the Tennessee baseball program.

UT (41-15, 16-14 SEC) enters the showcase as the 8-seed and will take on the winner of (16) Missouri and (9) Alabama on Wednesday morning at 10:30 ET. This year’s SEC Tournament will be a single-elimination format consisting of all 16 teams in the league.   

Tennessee won the first 20 games of the regular season and sat atop the national rankings in every poll for a few weeks midseason. The back-half of the SEC slate was not kind to the Vols, however, as the program dropped five-straight weekends and six of the past seven.

D1 Baseball projects the Vols as a No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional this time next week, along with host program Georgia Tech (No. 16 overall seed), Arizona State (3) and Columbia (4).

So, what needs to happen this week for the Vols to gain one of the final regional host lines? Here’s a few key points to be mindful of around the country for conference tournament week.  

Teams on the Hosting Bubble

Georgia Tech (ACC): RPI: 20 | Quad 1 Record: 12-10
Alabama (SEC): RPI 9 | Quad 1 Record: 14-11
Florida (SEC): RPI: 12 | Quad 1 Record: 11-16
Tennessee (SEC): RPI: 16 | Quad 1 Record: 12-10
TCU (Big 12): RPI: 17 | Quad 1 Record: 7-7
Ole Miss (SEC): RPI: 18 | Quad 1 Record: 16-14
UCLA (Big 10): RPI: 15 | Quad 1 Record: 3-7
Dallas Baptist (CUSA): RPI: 19 | Quad 1 Record: 4-4
Southern Miss (Sun Belt): RPI: 21 | Quad 1 Record: 7-4
Kansas (Big 12): RPI: 23 | Quad 1 Record: 4-6

Several of these programs are currently projected as regional hosts right now.

D1 Baseball’s latest Field of 64 has UCLA (13), Southern Miss (14), TCU (15) and Georgia Tech (16) all hosting with the rest of the grouping as 2-seeds. 11Point 7’s latest iteration has UCLA (13), Georgia Tech (14), Florida (15) and Alabama (16) earning the final few slots.

In both projections, Tennessee is slated as the No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional (host GT) and pitted against either the Austin Regional (No. 1 overall Texas) or Nashville Regional (No. 3 overall Vanderbilt) for supers.

What needs to happen for Tennessee   

For starters, Tennessee needs to play Alabama on Wednesday and the Vols need to win that one and Texas on Thursday. Sure, UT could make up not beating Alabama (if it is Missouri) later in Hoover with more wins, but there’s some serious RPI points to gain by beating the Crimson Tide (if they beat Missouri on Tuesday) and Longhorns. Alabama is No. 9 in RPI and Texas is No. 4.

Winning those two games to kickoff the week in Hoover would put Tennessee seriously back on the map to be an NCAA Regional host, but the Vols likely need some more help along the way. Keep in mind, a win against Alabama and a loss to Texas would basically be a wash (need them both), but beating Alabama (again, if it is the Tide) is a two birds and one stone situation as it will be a de facto host knockout game.

From there, what else is needed?

Basically, look at the teams up top on the hosting bubble and root against them. Every win in the conference tournament is a point in the team’s favor, therefor rooting for some 0’fers is what is needed. They won’t all go 0’fer in their respected conference tournaments, but some will.  

Looking at the SEC Tournament, both Florida and Alabama must play on Tuesday (not each other). There won’t be any RPI points to gain with wins over (15) South Carolina and (16) Missouri, respectively, but potential wins over Tennessee and Ole Miss would work wonders. Like the potential of Tennessee and Alabama on Wednesday, the potential matchup of Florida and Ole Miss on Wednesday would also likely be a de facto host knockout game. Regardless if it is Florida or Ole Miss on Thursday, root for the Hogs.     

In the Big 10 Tournament, it’s pool play. UCLA takes on Illinois in its opener on Wednesday morning. Root for the darker shade of orange. In the Big 12, Kansas will take on the winner of Oklahoma State/Baylor and TCU challenges the winner of Kansas State/Houston on Thursday. Root for chaos and upsets.

Dallas Baptist is the No. 1 seed in the Conference USA tournament while Southern Miss (arguably the hottest team in baseball right now) is the No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt tournament. Again, root for upsets.

Entering conference tournament week, there’s still an outside chance Tennessee could play itself onto the host line. For that to happen, some of the scenarios above must play out.